7 Snapchat accounts every aspiring founder should follow

Photo credit: Adam Przezdziek .

Snapchat is one of the hottest social media networks today. The bulk of its 100 million daily active users are incredibly engaged, viewing more than 10 billion videos every day. This staggering figure means the ephemeral messaging app is on par with Facebook, whose 1.55 billion monthly active users view, on average, 8.5 billion videos daily.

That’s some serious scale.

Snapchat remains a powerful medium for storytelling but it has its drawbacks too. The majority of its audience are kids or cash-strapped college students who have less disposable income than working professionals. There aren’t any links embedded inside videos and hence no way of measuring the effectiveness of specific campaigns. It sucks for SEO too.

But Snapchat is definitely here to stay. Brands, celebrities, and publishers are embracing the platform like no other, mainly due to its incredible ability to reach demographics across the globe.

With Twitter rapidly running out of gas, Snapchat is also emerging as a way for successful entrepreneurs to build their personal brands and to connect with audiences around the world. These founders regularly engage in Q&A sessions, document their daily activities, and take you through the trials and tribulations of an entrepreneur.

In no particular order, here are seven entrepreneurs you should be following on Snapchat:

1. Justin Kan

Snapchat handle: justinkan

Justin’s a partner at Y Combinator and best known for founding Twitch, which was acquired by Amazon for US$970 million. Live video streaming is definitely one of his passions – he’s the same guy behind the wickedly popular site Justin.tv.

Justin Kan

2. Gary Vaynerchuk

Snapchat handle: garyvee

Gary’s an investor, media entrepreneur, author, internet celebrity, public speaker, and hustler all rolled up in one big package. He’s known for his daily spurts of inspiration and constantly urging others to go down the path of entrepreneurship.

3. John Rampton

Snapchat handle: johnrampton

4. Matt Mazzeo

5. Chris Sacca

6. Alexis Ohanian

7. Jason Calacanis